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Friday Fun Thread for February 17, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Star Trek: Picard season 3 has begun, and as a lifelong fan, having seen episode 1, I am truly excited.

The new series seem to have each picked out an audience, per this fan comment I'm paraphrasing from an io9 commenter:

  • Strange New Worlds for ST:TOS fans

  • Picard for ST:TNG fans

  • the upcoming Section 31 for ST:DS9 fans (probably)

  • Prodigy for fans of Voyager

  • Lower Decks for fans of the entire Star Trek canon including those rare gems who still adore The Animated Series from the 70's

  • Discovery for fans of the Star Trek 2009 cinematic series (original commenter said "for people who hate Star Trek" and another said "for people who love Star Wars".)

B5 is probably the best Sci Fi ever filmed (though certain episodes of TNG / DS9 are great, and Farscape is its own fun different show)

I hadn't even heard of half of these. Isn't Prodigy a drum and bass band?

Is there just a lot of studio money pouring into star trek after the movies? I always thought Enterprise dying early killed off the TV shows

Prodigy is a Star Wars: Clone Wars-style CGI cartoon airing on Nickelodeon and Paramount Plus. It's definitely, obviously for kids, somewhat twee, but the concepts and ethics are very Star Trek.

Paramount is desperately trying to make their streaming service impossible to give up before they have to start making a profit by raising their rates. Star Trek is the P+ cash cow.

Star Trek: Picard season 3 has begun, and as a lifelong fan, having seen episode 1, I am truly excited.

The new series seem to have each picked out an audience,

Huh? Did they have a come to Jesus moment with season 3? All the new Treks I gave a chance were unwatchable, and it feels vaguely blasphemous to even call them Star Trek. Just another example of how we let corporations hang on to copyright for way too long.

They seem to have. They've gotten tons of fan feedback, and S3 so far seems more like a new TNG movie in the vein of First Contact or Nemesis, and less like prestige streaming television.

Strange New Worlds is eminently watchable, a true delight and the only possible blend of the original series' ethos with today's dominant culture.

Strange New Worlds is pretty legit. Not my favorite Star Trek (still too much focus on pretty production values and not enough on the writing imo), but it's at least a legitimately good Star Trek. Which is a damn sight more than I can say for Discovery or Picard.